**Optimism from both sides of the aisle when Congressional leaders were asked about reaching a budget deal by the time the stopgap spending bill expires next Friday.

Agri-Pulse reports among the needed agreements are limits for defense and non-defense spending and also what to do with a disaster-aid package that includes new farm bill funding as well as assistance for growers who lost crops to last year’s hurricanes.

Democrats are also pushing for legislation that allows DACA recipients to remain in the U.S. legally while Republicans want to include an extension of expired tax breaks.

**President Trump wants a speedy solution to the U.S. free-trade agreement with South Korea, known as KORUS, even as he exchanges insults with North Korea.

According to Western Farm Press, U.S. and South Korean negotiators will meet Friday in Washington to discuss changes to the pact. The Trump administration has cast the deal as a failure, blaming unfair trade deals for hollowing out America’s manufacturing sector and entrenching the nation’s overall $505 billion trade gap.